Here we go again…

Yesterday, I wrote about how Americans for Prosperity representatives helped knock down their own tent on the grounds of the Michigan State Capitol building during an anti-Right to Work for Less rally there. Subsequent to posting that piece, I was alerted to comments on Reddit. You can read those comments HERE. What is evident from the comments is that there is a lot of editing that has gone on with the videos Fox News is now running in nearly constant rotation making it look like all of the violence and hostility at the rally yesterday came from union members. As it turns out, significant portions of it were faked and creative Breitbart-style editing helped it along much more.

This morning I spoke with with the Reddit commenter who posted the information. He assisted me in putting this piece together and was present for the conversation that happens in the first minutes of the first video below.

This video is actually a composite of things that happened over the course of the day, many of them hours apart. The initial conversation happened early in the morning. At about 0:16, it cuts to Crowder saying, “You’ve already destroyed one tent, leave this one alone.” That happened hours after the interview with the union workers that starts the segment. The guy he’s talking to is standing quite a distance from the tent but Crowder insists that he’s somehow tearing down the tent.

Selective editing at about 0:39 mark shows what appears to be union guy attacking Crowder for no apparent reason. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that the guy is getting up off the ground — that he was NOT the one that became aggressive first.

At about 1:13, as the tent is coming down, Crowder comes over to the cameraman and waves him off as if to say, “that’s enough filming.” The reason for this becomes clear if you watch this longer, less edited version of the video:

What they apparently don’t want you to see is union members using knives to cut the tent open to let people inside out. Rather, the message that is being sent by the conservative media and blogosphere is that the union members deliberately cut the tent to pieces in an act of malicious vandalism. As was pointed out on Reddit HERE, the union members actually ask, “Is everybody out?” and then proceed to make sure that they are.

At 1:49 in the longer video, one union members notes that an AFP guy has a gun and brags that he’s “killed plenty of mother fuckers with a gun” (i.e., he’s killed people who were in possession of guns.) This is being played up as if a UNION MEMBER had a gun. Not true.

If you want to see a blatant act of theater on Crowder’s part, keep watching that segment. At 2:07, Crowder asks the cameraman “are you recording this?” The cameraman answers, “Yes”, then Crowder acts as if he’s being roughly shoved back into the crowd unprovoked. If you watch closely, the guy who supposedly pushed him has his hands by his side.

UPDATE: It appears that Crowder was actually pulled back by a protester in that segment which is not evident in the longer video but IS evident in the shorter, edited video. My apology for the error and thanks to those in the comments who pointed it out to me.

For those who have accused me of defending violence by union members, I don’t. It pisses me off to no end that these people allowed themselves to be manipulated by Americans for Prosperity and Fox News and incited into doing stupid shit that gives ALL union members a bad name even though the stupid shit was done by only a small handful out of the 15,000+ people that attended the rally and behaved perfectly calm.

That said, there is no question in my mind whatsoever that AFP and Fox employees set out to incite a huge crowd of very angry people. My wife Anne spoke to a number of union members yesterday who spoke about their fear of the future. They are barely making ends meet now and, with the passage of Right to Work for Less laws, they will now have even less of an opportunity to improve their situation. They are afraid and they are angry and Americans for Prosperity sticking their thumb into their eye fans the flames. They had two HUGE tents taking up space in the middle of the Capitol grounds that were largely empty throughout most of the day.

People that were present at the rally told me that Crowder uses a technique of intentionally invading your personal space to make you uncomfortable and then peppers you with questions to make you angry. It is an intentional act to incite an angry response. The Capitol grounds were a tinderbox of angry folks and both AFP and Fox News tossed a lit match into it and then blamed the wood for catching fire.

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When BlogCon (a conservative blogging conference) was held in Denver, Crowder and a group of angry right-wingers surrounded Occupy Denver protesters and screamed at them. Crowder later claimed he was “assaulted” while part of a large, screaming mob surrounding five people. Here are the relevant videos:

“A black man named Clint Tarver, who owns a hot dog cart in Lansing near the capitol building, was attacked by violent union thugs and leftists.”
I guess Mr. Tarver deserved it, after all, he is black, and he was serving hot dogs to white people

he_who_scoffs_at_danger

It’s actually a bit more cynical than that. Adam actually chose a video in which the action is obscured over this video which provides an overhead view which shows the occupy lady get grabby and jabbing her elbows at the people behind her, at which point she falsely accuses Crowder of pushing her, promting the crowd to begin chanting “this is what violence looks like”.

So there you have a purposeful attempt to deceive on Adam’s part, but the deeper cynicism is inherent in the introduction of the Occupy movement’s “occupation” of a conservative blog conference. If it is the accepted frame that Crowder “got what he was looking for” and that violence against interlopers was what anyone might reasonably have expected in such circumstances, then why should we presume that it would have been problematic if Crowder had pushed the occupy lady?

We know the answer, of course, is that progressives support their own use of political violence, while feigning moral outrage at whatever incidents they can manufacture in which they dramatize themselves as victims.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lindyb-Oggs/1440043021 Lindyb Oggs

Can’t be certain, but what are the odds that this is the same Adam saying the attack on Mr. Tarver is deserved, because Tarver is an Uncle Tom.

You’ve hired your mind out to the wrong people. The only violent thugs are the far-right extremists.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

This is the depth of reality-avoidance on the Left: here we are commenting on a video clearly showing a leftie union thug assaulting someone, and you make the charge that only far-right extremists can be violent.

I suppose that goes for Black Bloc, Bill Ayers, and The New Black Panthers too? They’re all Republicans, are they?

H.P. Loathecraft

Why was he getting up off of the ground?

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

My best guess is that he got into a shoving match with the guy beside Crowder (whom he was advancing on), and got pushed down.

But what does it matter? The union thugs were surrounding and advancing on the tent, not the other way around. At some point, when surrounded with 500 crazy, violent (and as we saw in the incident with the “Hot Dog Guy”, racist) animals, you have to start pushing back. When you’re surrounded there comes a point where you simply can’t retreat any more.

And as we saw, they eventually did tear down the tent. I shudder to think what would have happened if they hadn’t at least given the impression they would fight back – there might have been murders.

BruceMcGlory

yeah why did AFP tear down their own tent? I mean, apart from the fact that they’re disgusting liars, like you.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

Several of the videos I’ve seen show people with IBEW patches and hardhats loosening and cutting tent straps. Then after the tent was destroyed, several union members, like Chris Opalewski, got on top of it to chant and cheer. Why would they do that if it was AFP destroying their own tent?

But you keep clinging to that alternate reality, okay?

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

He’s been identified as Tony Camargo, IBEW Local 876.

Plantsmantx

I don’t think that takes place at the same point in time. In the footage where he staggers backward, he’s clearly heard asking the cameraman, “You recording this?”, and the cameraman is clearly heard answering, “Yeah…yeah, I got it”. That doesn’t happen at the 1:00 mark in the video you link to.

sjmn

Another photo of “union violence” has been starting to pop up on my Facebook feed. Any idea what’s going on with it?

Apparently it’s just an overturned hot dog stand (which really isn’t a hot dog stand but an overturned table with stuff spilled onto the grass), which somehow got turned over by accident. The guy who posted it AND wrote the caption probably made up the whole thing about “union thugs” doing that. Hell, he’s probably not even friends with the “victim.”

sjmn

I suspected as much. But I’ve had 5 people on my Facebook feed in the last 30 minutes go on about how his cart was severely damaged and “it just proves…”

Hell, he could be just setting up a food stand! Look how neatly the box of hotdogs and other things are laid down on the ground!

http://www.zazzle.com/fierylocks FieryLocks

It was the food tables from inside the AFP tent…not a hot dog stand.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

I have no idea. It appears they are blaming the destruction of the hot dog vendor cart on AFP’s paid anti-union “protesters”. I’m not sure you can prove that from a photo.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

“I have no idea. It appears they are blaming the destruction of the hot dog vendor cart on AFP’s paid anti-union ‘protesters’.”

No, they’re blaming it on union thugs, right where the blame belongs:
“This is what was left of my friend Clint Tarver’s Hot Dog stand after
pro-forced unionism thugs trampled this man’s livelihood.”

ComradeRutherford

So they staged a photo and wrote a lie claiming it was done by people that actually WORK for a living, unlike far-right extremists that get wingnut welfare from the Koch Bros.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

Since this “staged” photo was posted, there have since been 3 or 4 videos from different angles, showing violent mob of IBEW thugs destroying a tent with people inside it. There has been at least one interview with the “Hot Dog Guy”, confirming that the union thugs destroyed his cart and his business. So I guess he’s in on it too? How many people you figure are in on this conspiracy, 100?

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

There were two tents and nowhere in this piece is anyone, including me, suggesting that union protesters didn’t bring down the tent. Read for content, not for what you want to see.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

Comrade suggested that the photo of the Hot Dog guy picking up his destroyed equipment was staged. That’s what I was responding to.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

Sorry, meant to say “bring down ONE of the tents”.

http://www.zazzle.com/fierylocks FieryLocks

This is the food tables from inside the AFP tent. Oh, btw here is another interesting story for you…

Fox has cheered on every war that comes down the pike and never pressured the party that screws veterans.
This time they weren’t safely in a studio or protected by cops, who have a union just like the Fox camera folk.
They accidentally got on the battlefield. A field they helped to create.
No sympathy.
History showed the violence of forming unions as government troops and private thugs tried to beat it down. They only experienced the results that were present so many years ago when this question was settled.
Get ready for more as people are made desperate. It’s just human nature when your family is expected to subsist on 20 grand a year with no benefits.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lindyb-Oggs/1440043021 Lindyb Oggs

And, Mr. Tarver deserved it for serving hot dogs while being black!
Remember the jingle, “look for the racist-union-thug-label!”

James Clark

The labels all read ” Made in China “. Where you been ?

http://twitter.com/bigal953 Alandro Berry

Typical FOX stunt.

Breitbart_Lives

You’re insane

fairiedust

Breitbarts dead. :-)

Breitbart_Lives

So you advocate violence?

fairiedust

I advocate for violins.

ComradeRutherford

No, it’s only the far-right extremists that resort to violence.

nynetguy

Really? I didn’t know there were far-right extremists in the unions.

BruceMcGlory

They work to AFP and Faux News. C’mon silly little bad liar, you knew that.

http://twitter.com/evilpixiedance Paula Grace

crowder does

http://conservatives.are.terrorists/ Dr. Matt

Yet another stage provocation by the teabaggers just like O’Queef and the Breitbartards have staged for years.

Breitbart_Lives

So you advocate violence as long as it shuts down the speech of opposition?

retaliate

Nah, he advocates violence if it’s being blatantly begged for by provoking a large emotional crowd of protestors.

You have to remember these union “thugs” know who Fox News is, know what AFP is (Koch-funded politics) and know that they are being taunted by someone who is connected to the billionaires who are funding the legislation aimed at busting their unions and weakening workers rights in the state as well as undermining the power of collective bargaining that workers have literally fought hard to attain in the first place.

To have AFP erect 2 big tents right in the middle of where the protestors would likely end up – and have those tents effectively empty with a crowd swelling outside… it was kind of obvious what would happen.

I dare say a large, mostly vacant, “Occupy” tent placed front and center in the middle of a tea-party rally would likely get exactly the same treatment… yet this is exactly the stunt AFP/Breitbart/Fox have pulled off here.

he_who_scoffs_at_danger

You really have no idea of what a clown you look like when you propose the “what if?” scenario of Occupiers invading opposition events and protests as if there aren’t dozens of concrete examples to draw from. Which is not to say that there weren’t a few notable incidents of violence. For instance, when Occupiers invaded an AFP event and pushed a 70 y/o lady down a flight of concrete stairs because she managed to get through their blockade.

ComradeRutherford

No, it’s only the far-right extremists that do that.

H.P. Loathecraft

I smell Deadbart’s corpse.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=9125050 Mike Linnehan

At 2:07, the man is PULLED down, not shoved. The evidence is in the first video. You might want to change that part of your article so people don’t assume the whole article is wrong because of one inaccuracy.

kirke123

well, the war begins! the gov made a very stupid mistake. maybe it had something to do with union attack on walmart? but the unions have not much of a choice but to fight back hard through a statewide strike. do they have the member support is the question.
coward snyder has not only attacked the unions, but businesses like mine which will suffer economically due to this stupid law.
lets see if the two teacher unions can step up for they blew it when crestwood teachers were fired.
as an aside, it was very sad to visually see how grown adult represenative acted toward the concerns of the citizens, very sad indeed.

Lindlar Catalyst

“If you want to see a blatant act of theater on Crowder’s part, keep watching that segment. At 2:07, Crowder asks the cameraman “are you recording this?” The cameraman answers, “Yes”, then Crowder acts as if he’s being roughly shoved back into the crowd unprovoked. If you watch closely, the guy who supposedly pushed him has his hands by his side.”

At 2:07, Crowder doesn’t “act” like he is being “roughly shoved back into the crowd unprovoked.” He is actually being pulled by the back of his collar by a man in a tan/light brown jacket. The shorter/edited video has a different angle on this at 0:59 and clearly shows Crowder being pulled by the collar. Unless the man in the tan/light brown jacket is in on the act, this was hardly a blatant act of theater.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

I have updated. Thank you.

Breitbart_Lives

Are all of you people freaking insane? Who the hell gets the pure lunacy that your spewing from watching those videos? What could possibly lead you to believe what you actually believe other than being extremely biased and unable to comprehend the truth?

http://www.facebook.com/lindsay.hirsch.94 Lindsay Hirsch

Having fun trolling?

ditdahdit

If I got paid as much as these anti-union shills did I wouldn’t need a union either.

Georgina

Something tells me their not getting paid enough. Facts mean nothing to these people. Some in the middle class will not be happy till they get rid of themselves. AFP had tents, but no people. Our numbers spoke for themselves.

ComradeRutherford

Your namesake made his living on wingnut welfare and never actually worked a day in his life. His biggest thing was taking video footage and editing it to show the exact opposite of what really happened. Clearly that was also done here. Snivleing Chowder waded into a crowd to deliberately start a riot and his highly edited videos show exactly that: his assholeship trying to start a riot.

In America that is a crime, but in wingnut land he is a hero.

http://twitter.com/7daykatie katie anderson

Groups confronted by this Lie-Chowder should cross their arms across their chest in the classic “death pose” (so any footage will show they clearly cannot possibly be hitting, shoving or otherwise attacking the Lie-Chowder) and chant “Lie louder Crowder” at him until he drifts off some else.

I think he’d soon find his career went bye-byes if this approach were universally adopted because there’s only so much editing that can be done, and ulitimately his audience’s interest would peter out as he failed to get any footage of anything other than non-violent people chanting at him to lie louder.

Breitbart_Lives

So you advocate violence? It seems like you’re giving this criminal a pass

P. Ferro

“So you advocate violence?”
Go back and reread his freaking post:
“Groups confronted by this Lie-Chowder should[…]chant “Lie louder Crowder” at him until he drifts off some else.”

Sounds like a suggested alternative to me.

fairiedust

It’s obvious that you can’t read so why don’t you go away?
You are here to start trouble just like the faux nooz fiends.

retaliate

Union guy had to pick himself up off the floor first by the looks of things.

If the violence is retaliation to provocation, then yes, I advocate it because if I was pushed over by Crowder’s entourage, I’d retaliate too.

The only criminal here is Chowderhead for inciting a riot. The highly edited tapes to make the American Worker look violent is all just lies. Chowderhead and AFP set out to incite a riot and carefully cut a video to fake it.

nynetguy

Oh bullshit you simplistic buffoon.
Does the union worker threatening to kill people with a guy look like it’s fake? I am so nauseated by simplistic morons such as yourself who are utterly incapable of thinking for themselves.

nynetguy

I love it. Thus far not a single piece of evidence has been shown that Crowder in anyway incited that violence and yet all you liberals are here to fly with the flock and blame Crowder.

It’s literally like blaming the rape victim because she was dressed provocatively.

“Hey. Crowder shouldn’t have exercised his Constituional right to free speech. He had it coming to him.”

Every single one of you liberals here knows full well that were roles reversed you would be just as vocal. Assume it was TJ Walker and he crowd were all “elite 1%ers” you would all be ranting and raving.
Typical hypocrisy. Side with your side even if it means siding with the criminals.
ANYONE who would willingly champion or cheer those who would seek to deprive the right to free speech from another American is nothing more than a treasonist piece of filth who needs to hang.
I don’t care what political ideology you suffer from.

H.P. Loathecraft

I see, so what you are suggesting is that the video that cut out just before the punch which clearly shows the dude getting up off the ground indicates that he was having a nap.

http://twitter.com/evilpixiedance Paula Grace

yes there is: an obviously edited video. the man who thru the punch getting up off the ground, with no footage being show of how he got on the ground, crowder up in people’s face, crowder’s past whining that women and older men are just somehow always punching him, and crowder waving his crew away once they go they got the footage of the punch.

What a phoney article. It’s obvious the union thugs knocked the tent down. They are starting fights and nowhere do you see them helping anyone. Typical union liberal spin here.

Breitbart_Lives

It boggles the mind that these people can be so detached from reality. They sound like a bunch of psychopaths desperate to hold on to a false narrative

ComradeRutherford

You are describing yourself, you far-right extremist. You guys make up all sorts of lies like ‘tax cuts increase revenues’ and ‘global warming is a hoax’, denying the evidence you are seeing with your own eyes, and then you guys get all violent when anyone dares point out that you are brazenly lying.

ComradeRutherford

“It’s obvious the union thugs knocked the tent down”

Strange, your assertion is 100% the opposite of what the video record shows.

But since you are here to express your hatred for people that actually WORK for a living is it not surprised that you are incapable of perceiving reality.

https://twitter.com/thehiredmind Hired Mind

“At 2:07… Crowder acts as if he’s being roughly shoved back into the crowd…”

No,clearly he’s being PULLED from behind, not pushed. When people change directions or accelerate rapidly in a horizontal direction, they bend their legs to lower their center of gravity, then push off against the ground with their feet. Think of a basketball player changing directions. You can clearly see that Crowder is standing straight up, and moves horizontally backward, very rapidly, without pushing off against the ground.

If Crowder is capable of defying the laws of physics to this degree, then you union thugs really have something to worry about.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

I have updated. Thanks.

Breitbart_Lives

Remember when the Tea Party got caught on video beating up a left-wing blogger? Me neither

So disappointing to see this behavior from both sides.I was there yesterday, inside the Capitol,although I did not witness this circus show. As union members it is important to remember that violence will get us nowhere, only produce bad publicity and angry union haters. The unions will need to teach principles of non-violent action as MLK did. Only then will we have sucess.

So disappointing to see this behavior from both sides.I was there yesterday, inside the Capitol,although I did not witness this circus show. As union members it is important to remember that violence will get us nowhere, only produce bad publicity and angry union haters. The unions will need to teach principles of non-violent action as MLK did. Only then will we have success.

Our group was instructed yesterday not to engage with the opposition. Yes, they will bait you, call you names and insult your intelligence. But what was gained by this incident? learn to walk away. There was plenty of room on the front lawn yesterday to sat clear of Americans for Prosperity. Why even waste your time on them? As it turned it, it wasn’t a good choice to engage with them.

Rixar13

Fox Snooze Sucks…

benjabo

Just what Obama always wanted, Union Thugs ready to put on their Brown Shirts

http://www.facebook.com/julia.grey.98 Julia Grey

Yeah, because that would work out SO WELL for him.

Get a grip.

Breitbart_Lives

So… haven’t yet seen a single person on this entire page denounce the violence of the union thugs in this video. Not the extremist author, not the crazy-conspiracy posters. You people are partisan hypocrites

American Jesus

Had this really been a cleverly orchestrated hoax, your friends at Mediamatters would have been all over it, drooling and squealing, and would have made it their leading story. As it is, not a peep about this at the MM website.

Eclectablog, you and your sycophants better adjust the reception on your tinfoil hats. This is simply union thugs behaving badly.

http://www.facebook.com/steve.ashcraft1 Steve Ashcraft

Yeah. you go Progressive toolbags. Typical denial and manipulation by your radical reactionary force. Cash that Soros check fast, he’ll be cutting you off soon and “Move-ing ” off to some other socialist program very soon.. You guys scream choice unless it’s a different choice than your own. Continue your transparent hypocrisy,

ComradeRutherford

What random gibberish. I can recognize the words being said, but there was not one single coherent sentence in there. It was all extremist Newspeak, where you have to have the hearing of a dog to decode it.

Georgina

Oh how true Comrade. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I see a lot of name calling, insults, and language to deliberately agitate. All of which seems to becoming from people with a definite agenda. In fact I’ve been watching the post from these people, or trolls as their becoming known as, for awhile now. Their showing up on any sites with anti-RTW views. I can only imagine they are not getting paid very well. They probably need a UNION.

you people are INSANE. WHY WHY WHY DO THEY NEED TO GET OUT OF THE TENT IN THE FIRST PLACE ??? because union assWHOLES knocked it down WITH people inside. What you are saying is the guy who saved the old lady from a burning building is a hero when HE SET THE FIRE union dickwads

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

Stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself.

nynetguy

“What they apparently don’t want you to see is union members using knives to cut the tent open to let people inside out. Rather, the message that is being sent by the conservative media and blogosphere is that the union members deliberately cut the tent to pieces in an act of malicious vandalism. As Matt Allen points out in his comments HERE, the union members actually ask, “Is everybody out?” and then proceed to make sure that they are.”
Gotta just LOVE the liberal apologist mentality here.
“Yeah, the destroyed private property but they did so politely.”
Their still thugs.

BruceMcGlory

AFP pulls their own tent down, yet the union members are thugs? Get briebarts dead dick out of your mouth.

nynetguy

“What they apparently don’t want you to see is union members using knives to cut the tent open to let people inside out.”

I just love the sentiment.

“They destroyed public property but they did so politely.”

I also find it interesting that not one person rose up out of that tent after they cut it in half. Nice lie liberal.

Just how did they Incite them? By being there? Expressing their opinions? Isn’t that what the Union workers were there to do. If this had been a tea partier it would be on every major news network and talked about for days. Shame on all of you for not printing the truth!

BruceMcGlory

Holy fuck you’re stupid.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

Stop with the name calling or I will ban you.

http://www.facebook.com/jennifer.withrowhiles Jennifer Withrow Hiles

And… what about the poor African American Hot dog stand owner who has sold hotdogs for years on the corner by the statehouse? They destroyed his stand! For no reason! He wasn’t even there as RTW! Explain that one! Did Fox and Crowder destroy the stand and blame in on the Unions or maybe aliens from outer space hit it with their laser beams. Just wondering since you seem determined to write fiction… maybe the whole Alien story would get some traction. BTW Conservatives in Lansing and elsewhere have been raising funds to replace the Hot Dog stand. Maybe you could do a little penance and make a donation.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

I already did explain that one. Check my most recent post.

pugilist66

This article and electablog are tailor-made for liberal idiots, morons and buffoons. The stupidity of liberalism never ceases to amaze. Have fun wallowing in your ignorance lol

pugilist66

This story is typical liberal bs and eclectablog just helps to feed the idiot, moron liberal brain. Anyone who believes this retarded story is a retard lol

Keldog

“However, if you look closely, you’ll see that the guy is getting up off
the ground — that he was NOT the one that became aggressive first.”

What?!?! You imbecile. The guy was getting up off the ground because he fell after the first punch he threw at the back of Crowder’s head. You can even hear Crowder saying, “You just assaulted me,” before the guy gets up and throws another three punches. You libs live in lala land. You’ll believe anything. How many times did you play the video before you saw what you wanted to see and came up with your own narrative. This is laughable. You call this a “gotcha moment”? Please. Why don’t you all just build a fence around the East Coast and West Coast and leave middle America alone. We’ll see who prospers then. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t take that deal because you want everyone to be equally miserable. Remember, you might think you’re the 99% in America, but your monthly bill on your Chinese made iPhones would put you in the top 1% of the world.

Keldog

The union guy shouting about the gun didn’t see a gun. He was trying to incite the crowd by creating a panic about a gun. I thought you were gonna show an unedited version of the video. It’s someone else’s video shot from a different vantage point. Sheesh! And “…union members deliberately cut the tent to pieces in an act of malicious vandalism. As Matt Allen points out in his comments HERE, the union members actually ask, “Is everybody out?” and then proceed to make sure that they are.” You expect us to believe that these nice, gentle union thugs were trying to save people? Haha! If you lock your keys in your car, I’ll smash your window and say I was just helping you get your keys. Then I’ll smash the rest of the windows and say I’m preventing you from having to worry about locking your keys in your car ever again.

First, the left-wing media has blood on its hands when it comes to media editing. To mention two recent accounts, think NBC and George Zimmerman and Romney’s speech about the sandwich machine at WaWa.

Second, provoking violence to win the court of public opinion isn’t anything new. Think Lincoln in 1861 sending supplies to Fort Sumter and King in 1964 with the Birmingham Campaign after the failed attempt to get a riot going in Albany, Georgia.
Both Lincoln and King needed to light a match and blame the wood for catching fire and both of them succeeded; Lincoln got his war and King got his violent footage.

The truth is that Americans for Prosperity had the right to be there at the Capitol this week just like blacks had the right to march in Birmingham in 1963. As a country, we condemned the violent treatment of blacks then and we should continue to condemn the violent treatment of any individual(s) now without making excuses.

The issue here isn’t who edited what or who did the provoking.

The issue here is that violence isn’t getting condemned across the board in all news outlets. What’s worse is that some places, like Eclectablog, are finding excuses for violence and placing blame on others rather than holding people who resort to violence responsible for their actions.

Credit Roland Martin for twitting about it without making excuses.

Eclectablog deserves credit for not defending violence by the union members. Period. Eclectablog is still a far cry short of equally holding people accountable for their actions. Crowder has just as many excuses for his behavior as Eclectablog has for the angry union members who were violent.

The difference is that Crowder wasn’t violent.

As far as being upset about creative media editing and provoking violence, join the club.

“Right to Work for Less laws”? Maybe you meant “Right to Work for More” workers! Of course, if you’re dependent on union dues, you may be worried… but dues are still collectible, so fear not!

FrancisMcManus

During the protests in Wisconsin over another labor issue — collective bargaining — Fox showed video of fisticuffs as Bill O’Reilly, I think, told the story of union thugs in Madison Wisconsin.

The problem with the video was that it not taken in Wisconsin. It was from Florida or some locale with palm trees. Wisconsinites mocked Fox News’ hackery by making signs that said “Fox News will lie about this,” They brought dozens of inflatable palm trees to the capitol protests. It was a hilarious response that illustrated Fox News’ mendacity day after day. The narrative Fox had planned to sell about union thuggery in Wisconsin was beaten back a few notches as Fox’s hackery became the story.

I believe Crowder went to Lansing with Stranahan to get video that could be used to tell the story “unions are inherently violent.” He came close to admitting this in his interview with Hannity. Both Crowder and Stranahan are movement conservatives and veteran video hacks who produce false and misleading crap. Google Crowder and Debbie Schlussel.

Crowder provoked people all day.The large man with a beard in the video yells repeatedly at Crowder, “Get out of my face.” He wants nothing to do Steven Crowder. It’s notable Crowder edited out Crowder’s provocations. When you think about it, except for the fisticuffs, Crowder had collected very little video he could work with, and I presume a lot of people showed a lot of restraint.

But Crowder got his video, spent 3 hours editing it, and had it on Fox News in prime time that evening with Sean Hannity. Crowder was on Fox & Friends the next morning.

Fox “News” story was not about “right-to-work” or the 12,000 who came to protest the legislation. It was about violence by a union man — A HUGE DISTRACTION, which Fox used to confirm the narrative of union thugs, and associate violence with democracy in the workplace, and better wages and benefits for working people.

Fox is using the video to sell a narrative of violence — to assert that unions are inherently violent. There were 12,000 protesting in Lansing and Crowder was able to provoke one guy to throw a punch. Violence is wrong but Crowder wasn’t just there to record it if it happened, he was there to help it along. His provocation is a part of the story that’s not getting enough attention.

One person threw a punch. About 18% of Michigan workforce are union members and did not, 12,000 of them were there Thursday. But Fox will do it’s damnedest to drum home unions are inherently violent.

What’s there reason for this? If they’re not thugs they could be victims, and Republicans can’t have that. The alternative narrative is that Republicans screwed working families for nothing more than pure politics, which is an assertion made by President Obama no less.

For years, Fox sold the narrative that public union members have lavish pay and benefits, which is a lie. The truth is that all the money is going to the top income earners in the country. This narrative is a classic divide and conquer. Make taxpayers mad at public workers so that when Republicans cut into their pay and benefits, there’s popular support for it. Now they going after private unions too, and for politics.

People victimized by Fox “News” agenda should really think about getting together and going after Fox.

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

Great comment, Francis. Thanks for this.

Lindlar Catalyst

“His provocation is a part of the story that’s not getting enough attention.”

This statement is nothing more than an glorified “well HE started.”

The fact that there is so much attention is being devoted here to proving Crowder/Fox News’s provoking and editing work is true seems to suggest the authors are under the impression that this type of behavior is limited to one side of the political spectrum.

“Well HE started it. I never start it.”

Rose colored glasses. Tunnel vision. A delusion. Call it what you want.

The truth is that the left-wing is just as guilty of provoking violence/hate as Crowder allegedly is in this case. What it seems many people on the left are having trouble with is realizing that it comes from both sides. The left talks about having fairness and equality in this country a lot but seems to be only interested in pursuing them through its own handpicked double standards. The left calls itself “progressive” yet this is not how progress is made.

Crowder provoked angry union workers. Crowder edited video to make unions look bad. Congratulations, you have finally found enough evidence to prove once and for all that Fox News is not a reliable source of information and should no longer provide coverage to the citizens of the world.

Down with Fox News. MSNBC forever.

Keep dreaming.

Sometimes the shoe hurts when it’s on the other foot.

Reasonable Americans will listen if the left focuses more on pushing the story about how workers deserve protection against employers, debunking myths about union members with lavish pay and benefits, and how unions don’t think it’s fair for a worker to come in and enjoy benefits they aren’t paying for.

As for the assertion made by President Obama about Republicans screwing working families for nothing more than pure politics, the President made that assertion for pure politics.

Rose colored glasses aren’t helping and they don’t look good on anyone.

I find it disconcerting on a purely human level (who cares what side of a political debate they are on) that a crowd of apparently capable human beings stands perfectly still all the way around a collapsed tent with other people trapped underneath it. Does it strike anyone else as a bit odd?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Lindyb-Oggs/1440043021 Lindyb Oggs

Remember the jingle, “look for the racist-union-thug-label!”

“A black man named Clint Tarver, who owns a hot dog cart in Lansing near the capitol building, was attacked by violent union thugs and leftists.”

This is a pathetic spin piece. A man gets attacked and the best this liberal sheep can say is, “liar, liar, pants on fire” and his proof is some incoherent, poorly filmed at someone’s side film. How pathetic. http://www.loudmouthelephant.com

“Hello! We’re your friendly neighborhood union! We’re going to tear down your tent because we don’t like you, but we want to make sure all the women and children get out safely!”

You’re arguing that the unions demonstrated an act of kindness AFTER an act of violence. Crowder’s video is indeed selectively edited, but sorry, the unedited video doesn’t show what you wished it showed.

Steven Crowder admits to shoving RTW protesters. Watch the posted video from Hannity. He actually (accidentally) shows the unedited video which clearly shows Crowder pushing the union member that punched him to the ground first. This little weasel and his fellow punks from AFP started this crap.

Video says otherwise. There are several videos showing union thugs loosening the tent straps. They show the union thugs chanting “break the tent” and “tear it down”, etc, and show them cheering afterward and standing on the downed tent. In one of the videos of Crowder getting assaulted, union goons can be seen in the background pushing against the tent and trying to pull the stakes out of the ground.

There was a hot dog stand inside – Lee Stranahan did an interview with the guy the next day. There are several stills of Clint Tarver picking up he destroyed equipment while the goons continue to chant and yell.

So, who is right: photographic proof (from several different angles), or some union-paid “witnesses”?

Thanks for the depth of coverage on this fabrication by Crowder and his merry band of ne’r do wells. My son Matt, who attended the rally with me, was incensed by Crowder’s methods and literally spent hours breaking down these videos.Thanks for crediting his hard work. It is ironic that with 17,000 plus protesters attending the rally, there was much more misbehavior per capita, by AFP folks and Police.
Do the worker bees at AFP really believe the Koch’s and DeVos’s are seriously looking out for them? I don’t believe any of these folks at the rally are uber rich, so can’t they understand these corporatistas are trickling down on them as much as us?

http://eclectablog.com Eclectablog

Your son did fine work and was clearly passionate about discovering the truth. This wouldn’t be the national story it is without his efforts.

Neo

That Union Thug threw a punch and slipped. You moonbats have nothing but conspiracy theories. You’re all so stupid, ignorant dim-witted public school infants.

Tony Trupiano is the host of the online radio program The Voice of the People, M-F, 9 a.m.-noon . He is the author of two books and has been part of the progressive media landscape for 20+ years. Follow him on Twitter @tonytrupiano.